Going Berserk is a 1983 comedy film starring John Candy, Joe Flaherty, and Eugene Levy and directed by David Steinberg.
Plot[]
John Bourgignon (Candy) is an amiable chauffeur and would-be drummer who is engaged to the daughter (Mills) of an extremely disapproving United States congressman (Hingle). As the wedding date approaches, Bourgignon's sleazy film-director friend (Levy) blackmails the senator into allowing him to record the ceremony, while Bourgignon runs afoul of a motorcycle gang and later finds himself kicked out onto the nighttime city streets while handcuffed to a dead man (Hudson). Worst of all, a local aerobics studio has become the front for an inept religious cult which has targeted the senator for assassination, and attempts to drug and brainwash Bourgignon into killing his future father-in-law during the wedding ceremony. In the end, with the questionable help of his even more hapless friend (Flaherty), Bourgignon more or less saves the day, and more or less lives happily ever after.
Cast[]
- John Candy as John Bourgignon
- Joe Flaherty as Chick Leff
- Eugene Levy as Sal DiPasquale
- Alley Mills as Nancy Reese
- Pat Hingle as Ed Reese
- Richard Libertini as Sun Yi
- Paul Dooley as Dr. Ted
- Dixie Carter as Angela
- Eve Brent Ashe as Mrs. Reese
- Ann Bronston as Patti Reese
- Murphy Dunne as Public Defender
- Kathy Bendett as News Reporter
- Elizabeth Kerr as Grandmother Reese
- Dan Barrows as Minister
- Brenda Currin as Sal's Secretary
- Frantz Turner as Wallace
- Gloria Gifford as Francine
- Bill Saluga as Skipper/Kung Fu Leader
- Ernie Hudson as Muhammed Jerome Willy
- Kurtwood Smith as Clarence
- Julius Harris as The Judge
- Elinor Donahue as Margaret Anderson
Reception[]
The New York Times review stated, "John Candy is easily the funniest thing in Going Berserk, an affably stupid comedy that's saddled with too much plot and that hasn't nearly enough energy to go with it." Vulture Hound wrote, "Going Berserk co-written by Dana Olsen misses the mark with its bare minimum of plot to get us from scene to scene that reference films/tv shows you’d rather being watching than this movie."